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A fireworks show or intensive strikes: the US reconsiders its strategy toward Tehran

Walla, a major Israeli news site, published a Hebrew report by Amit Avitan, "מופע זיקוקים" או תקיפות אינטנסיביות: בארה"ב בוחנים מחדש את האסטרטגיה מול טהרן. The date printed on the page is a last-update time, 3 August 2026, at 14:41. He cites CNN. The piece says American planners asked for unusual ways to pressure Iran, and that one option on the page is putting US forces on the ground. An American family should care because that option, as the article states it, includes taking an Iranian oil island or hauling out Iran's enriched uranium. The article says President Donald Trump has so far held back from approving it.

Background for new readers: On 28 February 2026 the United States and Israel began a joint air war on Iran. The Pentagon calls its part Operation Epic Fury; Israel calls its part Operation Roaring Lion. It came eight months after a shorter war in June 2025, when US bombers hit Iran's nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The question running through this section is whether the air war turns into American soldiers fighting on Iranian soil. This article is filed under Air War Is Not Enough; the full article index lists every article on this shelf.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. Walla, a major Israeli news site, reports from CNN and two sources familiar with the planning that American officials judge the deepest Iranian sites cannot be destroyed by conventional weapons, and that placing US forces on the ground to take Kharg Island or remove the uranium is on the table. Central Command's spokesman commented on the record about the analysts' request.

What the article says​

Avitan writes that, the week before, US Central Command asked a wide group of military analysts for creative and unconventional ways to pressure Iran and punish it. He attributes that request to a CNN report. Central Command is the US military headquarters for the Middle East. He writes that the request shows the US military rethinking its approach to Tehran after weeks of strikes that brought neither a deal nor a change in Iran's position.

He writes that the request went out before Trump threatened to renew strikes, and that Trump walked the threat back over the weekend. Regional figures intervened, he writes, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who urged Trump to lower the tension. He writes that a senior officer in Central Command's intelligence branch sent the request by email. A person familiar with the discussions, as Avitan reports it, said the command is looking at every option and knows the strategy needs another look.

He quotes the command spokesman, Captain Timothy Hawkins. Hawkins said, in Avitan's account, that Central Command has a long history of thinking in new ways, and that the commander, Admiral Brad Cooper, asks soldiers and officers at every rank how to improve operations. That is the official comment on the page. It treats the request as normal practice.

Avitan writes that two sources familiar with the planning say the US military is actively preparing to strike a site he names in Hebrew as הר המכושף, and other sites in Iran where nuclear material or related equipment is suspected. He writes that Trump is considering renewed heavy strikes on nuclear facilities that remain, even though Trump has said those sites were completely destroyed in strikes the previous summer. American officials, Avitan writes, judge that even the strongest conventional American weapons will not destroy facilities buried deep underground. Fully eliminating them, those officials say in his account, might require ground forces. He calls that a dangerous step Trump has so far avoided approving.

He writes that one option is a wide show of strikes, described as a fireworks display, against sites already hit or against similar targets. The aim, he writes, would be a symbolic win that lets Trump end the war even without one original goal, ending Iran's nuclear program. A person familiar with the discussions said Trump wants a deal in the end, and is looking for ways to show toughness and get out of the war. That is Avitan's Hebrew for the source's words.

He writes that the CIA, the US civilian spy service, and the intelligence arm of the US Defense Department recently judged that American strikes are not expected to change Iran's bargaining position. He writes that General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said in public that air strikes alone will not meet every aim of the war. Avitan quotes Caine telling lawmakers the previous month that air power has limits. The Hebrew on the page is לכוח האווירי יש מגבלות.

He writes that Central Command also built a plan for one to two weeks of heavy bombing, meant to damage Iran's missiles. More forces and equipment were moved to the region in case Trump approved a wider campaign. Avitan writes that the president has so far not given a green light, in part because of warnings that American stocks of interceptor missiles are running down. Others, he writes, warned of many civilian casualties if bridges and water-desalination plants were hit.

אפשרות נוספת היא הצבת כוחות אמריקניים על הקרקע, בין היתר לצורך השתלטות על האי חארג' או פינוי האורניום המועשר של איראן.

Amit Avitan, Walla, last updated 3 August 2026. In plain English: another option is placing American forces on the ground, including to take control of Kharg Island or to remove Iran's enriched uranium.

Kharg is an Iranian island. Its oil terminal matters to Iran's exports. Enriched uranium is uranium processed toward reactor fuel or a bomb. Avitan writes that such a step would contradict Trump's campaign promise not to send American soldiers to fight and die in foolish foreign wars that never end. That promise is Avitan's quotation of Trump. This page does not link to the speech.

What other reporting adds​

Which mountain. The Hebrew name Walla prints, הר המכושף, reads literally as "the enchanted mountain." The Jerusalem Post's English version of the same CNN report names the site as Pickaxe Mountain, the fortified underground site near Natanz (see CENTCOM seeks 'creative, unconventional' ways to punish Iran). The Hebrew appears to be a rendering of that name.

The email in English. IBTimes UK printed the officer's line: "We are looking for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran," and quoted General Caine to lawmakers: "Air power has its limits." (IBTimes UK, 3 August 2026; research capture: twitter/t52__v623.md). A roundup the same day, citing The Hill, said CENTCOM had "prepared a large-scale operation" as a "decisive two-week bombing campaign" (research capture: twitter/t50__v600.md).

What the ground option would take. Ten days earlier, the New York Post reported that seizing the uranium "would involve thousands of ground troops storming Iran's nuclear facilities," citing "a source familiar with military planning" (as pasted by @OwenGregorian on X, 25 July 2026; research capture: twitter/t52__v613.md).

What it shows​

Walla told Israeli readers in Hebrew what US officials had concluded: even the strongest American conventional weapons will not destroy Iran's deepest facilities, and "another option is placing American forces on the ground," to take Kharg Island or haul out the uranium. The same report says more forces and equipment were moved to the region in case the President approved a wider campaign, and that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs says air power "has limits." Israeli readers were told plainly that the ground option is American. The step the article calls dangerous is the one this section tracks, from the March plans to the July uranium-raid reporting (see Air War Is Not Enough and Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid).

Check it yourself​

Status: Donald Trump is alive. Dan Caine is alive.

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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